PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says she is "sickened'' by the ACC report that has sent shockwaves through the Australian sporting community.

Australian sport's darkest day plunged the AFL and NRL into crisis yesterday and rocked elite sport, amid revelations that entire teams doped.

Sports scientists, coaches and club support staff have orchestrated the drug use of players, aided by dodgy doctors, pharmacists and even anti-ageing clinics which have supplied new-age performance enhancing peptides and hormones.

Ms Gillard, who is in Queenstown for bilateral talks with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, said it was a dark day for Australian sport.

"We are people who go and sit at grounds or watch sport on TV and marvel at amazing sporting prowess,'' she told reporters.

"We cheer on the deeds, and the sense that anything we've seen has actually been fuelled by banned substances would be pretty sickening for sports fans. It's pretty sickening for me.''

Leading sports administrator Malcolm Speed said today that the introduction of state police sport integrity forces is long overdue.

"Criminals don't come along with tattoos on their forehead telling us that they're criminals," Speed, who is executive director of the coalition of major professional and participation sports, told ABC radio.

"They're members of the community, they're often sports fans, they become involved with clubs or players.

"You can't expect sporting clubs to investigate their own supporters, they simply don't know who they (the criminal elements) are."

The head of the Australian college of physicians said clubs needed to leave injections to doctors.

Indigenous All Stars coach Laurie Daley hopes the scandal rocking Australian sport doesn't take away from Saturday's All Star game.

"That is now being torpedoed by this report.

"The key thing now is to establish the facts - which players, which clubs - because I'm a bit concerned about every person out there who we've all watched, admired ... is now walking around with a total cloud over their head."

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou is adamant that cheating of any form in the AFL will not be accepted and you will be caught.

As drug-taking professional athletes were urged to "come forward before you get a knock at the door", other revelations include:

AT least one match may have been fixed and is being investigated.

POLICE have been handed 100 pieces of intelligence by the ACC and criminals pushing performance enhancing drugs have been linked to money laundering, fraud and match-fixing.

PLAYERS have been fed quick-metabolising drugs which are hard to detect intravenously. Some have not been approved or are rarely used on humans.

CRIME figures have forged business partnerships with major codes.

DOCTORS are writing scripts in false names for drugs supplied by compounding pharmacies.

ANTI-AGEING clinics with criminal links are distributing so called "fountain of youth" peptides to athletes that can enhance performance.

ATHLETES are supplying illicit drugs.

ACC executive director Paul Jevtovic revealed phone taps and coercive hearings had been used and he said the use of drugs not even scheduled had left the commission with "clear evidence players are being used as guinea pigs".

ACC chief executive John Lawler and Justice Minister Jason Clare said they were unable to name clubs, codes or players suspected of doping, casting a pall over all Australian sport.

NRL CEO David Smith said he had been briefed by the commission and that the findings of its report released yesterday "affects more than one player and more than one club".

The AFL has been rocked by an anti-doping investigation at Essendon and was also briefed by the commission, but Demetriou, who said "we have to do more," revealed he did not know how many players or officials were involved.

Both codes are now working with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and have scrambled to respond, the NRL appointing former Federal Court judge Tony Whitlam to work with authorities.

The ACC found the infiltration of organised crime and doping by team officials was similar to what the United States Anti-Doping Agency found in the case of Lance Armstrong, but on a larger scale.

In one case, a "research" body was established to get access to peptides and hormones from a compounding pharmacy.

Doctors complicit with doping regimes were recruited and, in another instance, a sports scientist profited from the sale of peptides and hormones and "directed their application at a number of sporting clubs".

Players were often left in the dark about what was being pumped into their bodies, with no medical records kept.

"In some cases, peptides and other substances were administered to players without them understanding the nature of the substances, and without the knowledge of the team doctor," the ACC found.

Football Federation chief David Gallop yesterday said "there is nothing specific in relation to football in relation to this report" while ARU CEO Bill Pulver said the report was a "wake-up call" but he was unaware of any allegations involving union's professional teams.

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Comments on this story

whatever Posted at 10:25 AM February 08, 2013

"We may well be many weeks, months before we have any concrete information or hard data and the reality is we might not have anything at all."
So basically they don't have any hard evidence at all. This is just a total media beat up. Until they can identify actual players or clubs it is all just hot air. There is no doubt there is drugs in sport, but I still haven't seen anything that is concrete in this report or the related media articles.

David of Wyong Posted at 10:16 AM February 08, 2013

"We may well be many weeks, months before we have any concrete information or hard data and the reality is we might not have anything at all."
Storm in a teacup my god present something solid ban the people doing it. None of this stuff may or may not have happened. SOLID EVIDENCE ONLY !!!!!

Matt of Gold Coast Posted at 10:13 AM February 08, 2013

Rob of Adelaide, corruption is "normal", it's a basic human attribute. Standards aren't being eroded because it has always been and always will be like this. Anybody who thinks otherwise is just dreaming of a "golden age" of their youth when they thought everything was above board, but in reality it was happening all around them, they just didn't notice it.

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